We’ve put horrible performance to bed – Cooper

MARK Cooper believes Wednesday night’s 3-1 home defeat to Southend was just an aberration for his Forest Green Rovers players and they will be back to their best for this evening’s 5.30pm kick-off against Colchester, writes Laurie Martin.

The Gloucestershire side could have gone top of Sky Bet League Two with a win against the Essex side at the New Lawn, but instead crashed to defeat against a side that was bottom of the table at kick-off.

Cooper told his pre-match press conference: “It’s a quick turnaround, which is good for us. I gave the players the day off (on Thursday) to get their heads together and to be bright and breezy for training (yesterday).

“It’s about recharging batteries. There isn’t a lot wrong, we’ve come up with a horrible performance, but that can happen. We put that one to bed, it’s done and we get ready for the game (against Colchester).

“Individually and collectively, they need to allow themselves to be the team that they can be, and not let anything get in the way of that, whether it’s mental or physical fatigue, they need to let themselves be as good as they have been. I’m confident that we’ll be at it, and it (Wednesday) was one of those days.

“We fully respect Colchester as a club, they have talented players. Unfortunately, the manager there (Steve Ball), who’s a really good guy, lost his job last week, which is never nice to see. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but we have to make it a tough game for them and be better than we were the other night.”

Elsewhere in League Two, Forest Green’s fellow promotion challengers Cheltenham are away to 16th-placed Scunthorpe, who were on a winning run until losing to Bolton on Tuesday.